Amazon continues to hold a strong line against States that enact legislation to tax affiliate sales. See this story in The Orange County Register.

Governments are in need of money all over the world, and they will come up with ways to get them (even if it means breaking human rights or constitutions). The little guy (the affiliates in this case) won't fight back - it would take a lot to get people marching in the streets.

The big corporations will fight back though, and that seems to be what we see here, a corporation saying "we prefer to earn nothing, than to let ourselves be subjected to unfair taxation". From the company's POV, this is surely less about this particular instance, and more about a wake up call to other states that are thinking of following suit. The affiliates are innocent victims, but I would still think of them as victims of their own government's policies, not of Amazon. California is changing the rules of the game, and it seems like a fair reason for a company to rethink the opportunity of having anything to do with that state.

You make some great points, Dan. I am an Amazon affiliate in Missouri - fortunately, we haven't had to face this yet. Our neighbors in Illinois have though. Reading through the article, I just felt like this was a lose-lose piece of legislation.